Spotlight Delaware is a nonprofit, community-powered, collaborative newsroom to cover the impact of public policy on Delawareans, increase access to information and civic engagement in historically underserved communities, and strengthen existing newsrooms throughout the state. 

Driven by in-depth community listening, the Spotlight Delaware team will be committed to providing communities statewide with information about what’s happening in state and local government, and what it means for them, their families and their communities. The newsroom will share information before government decisions are final, and will tell the community who the decision-makers are and how to contact them, so Delawareans can raise their voices and influence decisions.

The goal of Spotlight Delaware is to produce great journalism and get it to as many audiences as possible via as many platforms as possible. All of the reporting the Spotlight team generates will be shared for free with Delaware’s existing newsrooms. It will also be shared via nontraditional news sources (church newsletters, TikTok influencers, etc.).

Launched by the Delaware Local Journalism Initiative, Spotlight Delaware will proactively collaborate with existing newsrooms to reduce duplication and facilitate sharing of resources

To serve more communities, stories will be prepared for print, online, broadcast and social media, making it easy for partners to share on any platform. In time, the newsroom also aims to produce content in Spanish. 

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Delawareans told us they want and need more local news that inspires and empowers them to participate in our democracy, builds stronger connections among neighbors and holds those in power to account. They also asked us to help newsrooms work together to share the ideas and stories of different people. So we’re building Spotlight Delaware with our communities and, with the help of the American Journalism Project, we’re building it to last.”

Allison Taylor Levine, Founder & CEO

Leaders

  • Allison Taylor Levine
    Founder & CEO
    Allison Taylor Levine, MPA, is founder and CEO of the Local Journalism Initiative of Delaware (LJI), a nonprofit organization working to strengthen our democracy and our communities by strengthening local journalism in Delaware. Under Allison’s leadership, LJI is launching Spotlight Delaware, the state’s first collaborative nonprofit newsroom. After starting as a reporter at several newspapers, Allison has spent the past 20 years in various community leadership roles in Delaware.
  • Jacob Owens
    Editor-in-chief
    Jacob Owens, the inaugural editor in chief of Spotlight Delaware, has nearly 15 years of experience in reporting, editing and managing newsrooms in Delaware and Maryland, producing state, regional and national award-winning stories, editorials and publications. Jake most recently served as editor of Delaware Business Times.